Nuance and Jingle Networks Enter Strategic Partnership

Nuance Communications and Jingle Networks, operator of the 1-800-FREE 411 directory assistance (DA) service, earlier this week forged a strategic partnership that will allow Jingle to use technology and services from Nuance to enhance the overall consumer experience for 1-800-FREE411 callers.

This agreement, which extends and deepens the previously announced relationship between the companies, also includes Nuance referring and marketing the Jingle Ad Platform to its customers for additional audio ad serving needs.

"Combining Nuance’s best-in-industry speech recognition platform with our audio ad serving platform provides the highest-quality consumer experience at the lowest overall cost. This combination is the only advertising-supported directory assistance platform which has successfully scaled, supplying more than 1.5 million speech enabled audio ads per day," said Scott Kliger, founder and chief technology officer of Jingle Networks. "We tested numerous voice recognition solutions and determined that the Nuance Voice Platform for Directory Assistance provided the highest overall automation rates for business name and business category search enabling 1-800-FREE411 to deliver the best overall consumer experience. We look forward to deepening our relationship with Nuance such that Jingle ad-serving capabilities complement the Nuance Mobile platform for each company’s global customer base."

"We know that continually improving the quality of the consumer experience and increasing automation rates is a key driver for the ongoing success of Jingle’s business model and rapid growth," said Michael Thompson, vice president and general manager of mobile search and communications solutions at Nuance. "As a company, we are committed to serving the goals of our customers, like Jingle, which is recognized by the depth and breadth of this relationship."